Brandi wanted to say no, but she couldn’t. Heidi wanted a sanctuary. Who knew if Ryan was man or wolf enough to get it for her? She sure as hell had no idea. All she knew was that Heidi thought he was good in bed.
“I still don’t like that our risk just doubled,” Brandi insisted, her tone sharp.
“Neither do I,” Gareth agreed calmly. “But let’s not worry about that right now. If Ryan’s still alive, maybe he’ll figure out how to get her out of there. He might do our job for us and then we can all go home.”
Brandi shook her head. “Do you really believe any of that drivel?”
“No,” Gareth replied, “but it’s better than believing the boy failed because he was stupid in love.”
Brandi sobered out of her anger. She nodded tightly, not wanting to believe that either. “Failure is not an option. Danger Brain Diane cannot win this one. Let’s go with your fantasy of Ryan being a hero.”
“For now… and let’s move a little farther away from here. If they came looking, they might find our tracks, but better that than finding us,” Gareth suggested.
Brandi nodded and followed Gareth as he headed away from the compound.
14
“Let’s get that collar off you,” Diane told her.
The devil she’d promised her first born child to leaned over her on the gurney. Smiling, the scientist reached behind her neck and undid the clasp. Her nanos immediately scrambled to repair the lingering damage after it was removed. Somehow the silver device was holding them back well, unless they did so for other reasons. She thought of her partial shift with the collar on. Could their reticent actions be to preserve her?
Heidi had to admit she felt very little ill effects of having had the collar on all night. She certainly hadn’t reacted to it the way Katarina had.
“There now. If you need to shift forms to do the deed with your wolf man, nothing will get in your way.”
Heidi looked off, not answering. She was quickly learning that Diane Crane used taunts to draw out answers she knew Heidi wouldn’t give her unless she was angry.
“Still mad at me, little Healer?” Diane asked.
“Not really,” Heidi replied calmly. “I’ve moved from being mad to quietly planning out the details of your death. I found it was a good distraction while you’re carving on me. I’ve only come up with fifty ways so far. I’m sure I’ll think of many more before I get a real chance to use one of them.”
“I hate to tell you, because I know this aggressive stuff isn’t your true nature, but you aren’t the first to try and remove me from this world. No one has succeeded,” Diane said calmly back.
Heidi didn’t even wince at the sharp prick of a hypodermic needle entering her arm. There had been so many injections now, her body had adapted to the routine pain. What she couldn’t protect herself from was the future effects of whatever mad scientist concoction was being delivered into her veins. Her nanos had all gone still as it hit her bloodstream. She wasn’t sure what to think about their lack of activity. Had Danger Brain Diane, as Brandi called her, managed to kill the very things that made it possible for her to shift?
Heidi turned her face until she held Diane’s gaze. “You should know I intend to succeed. Nothing short of my death is going to stop me from eventually causing yours.”
“You do realize that I have hybrid bear men with guns working for me, don’t you?”
Heidi continued to hold her gaze. “None of that matters to me. You’re evil and you deserve to die.”
“Well, now that’s really a harsh pronouncement, especially since I just made sure you’re going to have a night of sex that you’ll probably remember forever. And for your information, I’ve decided I don’t really need your actual child,” Diane said sharply, turning away. “I just need a viable fetus. A couple weeks of incubating and then we’ll do a little surgery. After that, we’ll see what else you might be willing to do for me. I suggest you go get busy with your wolf now so you and he get to live to see tomorrow.”
Heidi closed her eyes and ordered herself to be calm. And what would happen to her and Ryan when she didn’t conceive?
All she could hope is that help would get there before the crazy woman cut her open.
Nothing else was done to her outside the one injection. Heidi realized her temperature was rising as Diane Crane’s primary goons dragged her down a hallway not too far outside the lab. One used his free hand to key in a series of numbers. Heidi remembered Ariel listening to Randall Crane doing that in his lab. Her problem was that her good ideas always came too late to be useful. Her nanos scrambled as her anxiety rose. What had that first one been?
When the door finally opened, they shoved her roughly inside. Like the cage room, this one was totally dark as well.
“Ryan?” she called in a whisper. “Are you in here?”
“It’s okay, honey. I’m here.”
Ryan’s arms slipped around her and Heidi fell into them. A sob of regret slipped past her resolve, and a waterfall of relief soon followed that slip. Her arms wound themselves gratefully around his neck, pleased once more to be able to hold him.
Ryan growled low and lifted her, carrying her sniffling body to his cot. He stretched out and pulled her close, letting her cry out her fear.
“How badly are you hurt?” he whispered in her ear.
Heidi reined in her tears and swallowed them back. She needed to tell him what she’d done.
“I’m surviving, but I don’t know for how long. Diane Crane’s intention is to dissect me. She wants to learn the secret of how her brother made us. The only reason I’m alive is that…” She stopped, unsure how to tell him about being able to control her nanos.
“I don’t need details of how you survived so far. You’re alive, Heidi. That’s all that matters to me.”
Heidi felt hot tears gather in her eyes. “I’m sorry for everything.”
Ryan sighed. “That’s just silly. Though I am still mad about you trying to break up with me. I’m telling myself it will be a funny story in a few years.”
Heidi sighed and didn’t tell him about the silver collar or her partial shift. Her wimpy side won again. “Do you seriously think we’re meant to be mates?”
Ryan tightened his hold. “I don’t just think it… I know.”
“Then… could you… could we… make it official tonight?” She closed her eyes at the desperation in her tone.
“Here? Now?” Ryan demanded.
Lust rose up to consume her when his hand swept down over her hip. Desire hit fast and hard. It was like her burning time all over again. Except the nanos were still not moving.
“Diane Crane initially kidnapped me to turn me into a breeder. When you showed up, she sort of changed her mind. Her crazy went into a total other direction.”
“Let me guess. She put you in here because she wants us to have sex tonight, hoping we’ll make a child,” Ryan answered, knowing now what was going on. “I can smell your physical changes happening. She put you into some sort of artificial heat cycle.”
“Yes. And if we don’t do what she wants, she’ll just kill us both outright. She already tried to artificially inseminate another female werewolf Travis brought her. Yana’s body fought off the attempt.”
“How many werewolves does she have here?” Ryan asked.
“Just me and Yana so far, but then I didn’t know about the room we’re in now. She sent Travis out to kidnap a baby… in case we don’t produce results.”
Ryan’s grip tightened. “Unbelievable… how crazy is she?”
“There’s no textbook chart to describe her level of insanity,” Heidi whispered, twisting in his hands. “Ryan, I can’t fight the effects of what she did to me.”
“It’s okay, honey. I won’t let you suffer. I promise,” he whispered. “Are you sure about the mating?”
“No,” Heidi said, being truthful. “But if I conceive, I would rather it be within a committed relationship. Giving my child a stable home is about the o
nly human goal I have left. There wasn’t a lot of stability in my family. We certainly didn’t have anything like a pack mentality.”
Ryan rolled her to her back and splayed a hand over her abdomen. “You smell amazing. Your body is calling to mine.”
Heidi nodded. “Ariel said I would know and she was certainly right. I feel like I have a fever and that if I don’t have you soon...” she swallowed the rest of her declaration. “Before I lose my rational mind, you should know I’ve cared for you from the very beginning, even when I thought what you felt for me was something I’d made you feel. Wanting a place of my own… I seriously just wanted a little more time to sort out myself. I wanted to slow things down and fall in love with you the right way. I’m not as confident about us as you seem to be.”
“What is the right way to fall in love?” Ryan smiled against Heidi’s face as he put his beard roughened cheek against hers. “You brought me back to life. Everyone who knows me can vouch for that. Everything we have together is right. I’m sorry if I’ve been too impatient for you to see it too.”
Heidi ran her hands under his shirt and moaned against his chest. “This isn’t how it was supposed to be though, is it?”
Ryan let out a breath as the love of his life tortured him. She did so well. “It’s the absolute right idea, just the fucking wrong location. We don’t have to let that stop us from being together. We just need to accept the risks.”
Heidi nodded and then wondered if Ryan could see her in the dark. “I’m sorry you’re here, but I’m not sorry I traded myself to Travis. I couldn’t give him Katarina. There was no good answer at the time. He’d said he’d kill you if he saw any trace of an alpha coming to help me. I knew what he was like so I believed him.”
“And you were right… my brave little nano wolf,” Ryan teased. He kissed her eyes, her temple, and then ran his lips down her jaw. He found Heidi’s hungry mouth as he slipped a hand under her shirt and cupped her breast in his hand. Heat rolled off her in waves. “Do you remember the marks Matt put on Ariel when she went to fight Hanuk? I’m thinking those will do just fine for our commitment tonight, don’t you?”
“Will we be mated?” Heidi asked, not really understanding until she felt Ryan’s fangs scrape across her collarbone. She winced at their sharpness, then sighed as his tongue laved them. Any sensation of pain faded away. “That’s kind of exciting.”
“You have no idea,” Ryan whispered roughly.
He moved over her at last and Heidi spread her legs in welcome. He reached between them to slide off their clothing and she blindly helped Ryan remove everything from the waist down. Then he was throbbing between her legs, probing at her entrance, and finally working himself inside her stroke by relieving stroke.
She arched up to meet his movements and felt his fangs rake across her shoulder tearing her skin once more. Whatever pain she felt disappeared when Ryan put his tongue against the marks and thrust hard to drive himself deep. Her channel clamped around his erection, unwilling to let him go.
“I’ve missed you,” Heidi whispered, her voice husky. “I’ve missed this. I’ve missed us. I’ve missed everything but our fighting.”
Ryan slowed his thrusts, finally listening to the words he’d sorely needed to hear. The woman beneath him needed far more patience than he’d developed. He would just have to learn to give her some personal space and whatever time she needed to come around.
His mother had been right. Heidi was worth it.
“I promise to give you what you need, even if it puts distance between us. Just don’t push me away again. That was too much to ask.”
“Okay,” she said, knowing she would have said anything at that moment to get him moving again.
Ryan thrusts brought them both to the edge, but he seemed to be delaying her trip off the orgasm cliff. Heidi felt her wolf rise to the surface—something that had never happened before in lovemaking. Ryan suddenly seized above her and was thrusting viciously before she even realized her wolf claws had raked against his back, forcing him closer. She vaguely had the thought that it’d happened again—that half-shifting thing.
“Sorry,” she said quickly, still panting and straining for release.
Hissing, Ryan’s hands slid to her hips and jerked them roughly up, tilting her pelvis until he was driving against her ruthlessly. Pleasure came in wave after wave, leaving her gasping with his continued thrusts.
Then he growled low and put his lips against her ear.
“Mine,” he whispered, taking her earlobe between his half human teeth, and suckling as he emptied himself inside her over and over.
Heidi felt the nanos go wild with Ryan’s climax. Their scrambling actually made her dizzy. Had they felt everything too? The crazy thought of them enjoying their lovemaking made her giggle just before total exhaustion took her under.
15
Throughout the night, she let Ryan have her body several more times. Well, to be honest, she gave him little choice. Whatever cocktail Diane used on her had made her nearly insatiable.
She made use of his full bathroom in the early hours, a luxury her cage didn’t have. She took a quick shower and washed her hair before dressing again in her clothes.
When the thugs came to collect her the next morning, she was dressed and ready. Ryan tugged her back by the hand when she rose to leave.
“Whatever happens, don’t give up hope,” he ordered.
Heidi nodded. There were many things they hadn’t discussed. Things like how he found her or whether or not anyone had come with him. She didn’t ask those questions for the same reasons Ryan didn’t offer the explanation. Neither of them wanted Diane Crane to have any more information.
“Hopefully, she’ll let me come back and see you,” Heidi said.
Ryan nodded. “Are you feeling okay this morning?”
Heidi nodded. “Whatever she gave me, the effects have passed. I feel good enough to survive.”
“See that you do,” Ryan commanded.
One of the thugs tugged on her arm and Ryan rose from the cot to stare hard at him.
“No, no,” Heidi said, hustling to the door on her own. “No need for that. I’m going with you.”
Her guards stopped their trek at the lab where she was routinely tortured. Diane lifted her head from what she was studying and walked over to her. Looking her up and down, she reached out and flicked her shirt open wider.
“Are those mating marks?” Diane asked.
Heidi slapped her hand away. “That’s none of your business.”
Diane waved a hand and the thugs each took an arm. Heidi twisted in their hold, but made little headway. Helpless now to stop her, Diane pulled her shirt aside in all directions. There had been no mirror in the bathroom, so she had no idea what the woman was seeing.
“Wow. He really did a number on you, didn’t he?” Diane commented. “Did it hurt?”
“What do you think?” Heidi demanded, offering only sarcasm.
“I’m satisfied. Take her back to her cage,” Diane said.
The thugs proceeded to drag her. No amount of kicking and screaming helped. In the cage room, the door to Yana’s cage was open. Yana’s body was face down just inside the door. One thug let go and moved to check Yana.
The other put his hands on both of Heidi’s arms… but her hands were now free. Heidi raised her hands and rubbed them on his arms, letting them rest there. She closed her eyes to concentrate. “Let me go,” she ordered softly, not surprised when he did.
Once free, she turned and put a hand on his chest through the opening in his shirt. His gaze clouded over, which meant her influence worked on the hybrid bears. “Lock yourself in my cage,” she ordered quietly.
He started in that direction just as his cohort flipped Yana over. The young werewolf’s eyes popped open and she lifted a hand to rub something across his eyes. Screaming obscenities, the guard backed up and fell down near Yana’s cot.
Heidi pushed past the cage bars to join them. “Let me see your
eyes. I’m a healer,” she ordered the hybrid guard. She grabbed both his hands and felt his resistance. “You will cease screaming, wash your face, and then remain in this cage until I tell you differently.”
His immediate cessation of yelling told her that she’d accomplished her goal.
“Come on,” Heidi said to Yana, who was still staring at the two guards, both now caged.
“How did you…?”
Heidi glared at the question. “Healing gift,” she said sharply, unwilling to explain anything further. There was a camera above the door. The room was being recorded. Soon Diane Crane would know what she could do. It also wouldn’t be long before more guards would show up.
“Let’s go while we can. I won’t be able to do this to every guard we encounter.”
“I got my cage unlocked… but I wait for you. Forgot camera watched us. Nicolai give miracle again, eh?”
“I think he did. Thank you for waiting on me,” Heidi said, patting the young woman’s shoulder. “Now I have to go free my mate. Diane Crane has him.”
“I go too,” Yana said bravely.
“No,” Heidi said, shaking her head. “You sneak out of here and see if you can get some of the guards to follow. But whatever happens, don’t let them catch you again. Your job is to get help that will take this place down. If you run into a couple of swearing wolves out in the woods, or a couple of men who smell like cats, those are the good guys.”
Yana stared down toward the exit in disbelief. “You think help is out there?”
Heidi nodded. “I do, but there’s a reason they haven’t come in yet. I don’t think they’re going to be here in time to save Ryan. I can’t take that chance.”
Yana stiffened. “Very well. I follow your plan.”
Heidi reached out and hugged the young woman. “Thank you. I hope we both live to see each other again.”
“Don’t worry,” Yana declared, pushing away. “I pray to Nicolai for you—keep his spirit busy helping most unusual Healer.”
Heidi: Nano Wolves 3 Page 11
